Tuesday, May 16, 2006

I have a whole back log of entries to make. You see with all the season finales on tv I've been kind of busy catching up, yes even with tivo. ;) We also made a short trip out to Vermont last weekend to celebrate pacman's b'day. Since the rain didn't stop, we spent most of the time eating so I have tonnes to write about!

Rewind to two Sundays ago. We went to Hei La Moon for dim sum with a couple friends. Having read about this on the web, I felt that we'd discovered a gem, you know a little known place that no one's been before. Turns out we're really not very in touch with the dim sum scene. Except for us, all our friends had been to Hei La Moon. Bleh ...

I thought the dim sum there was comparable to China Pearl, each place has its own specialty. The pork buns (yellow bread, not the white ones) were the highlight of my trip there! Unfortunately I scarffed them down before getting a photo.

We also had the chicken feet. I promise it sounds more glamorous in mandarin. Its direct translation would be phoenix's claw. I'm not usually a big fan since the claws freak me out! I like that at Hei La Moon, they chop the feet up into little pieces so you forget that you're eating feet :p I had a piece and it tasted pretty good.

7 comments:

Funny that you didn't like the clams, but the chicken feet were okay!!

Hey--what kind of camera do you have/use? I especially loved the Pastiche photos. In doing our own food photos for flickr, I'm realizing just how true it is that food always looks better on a white plate.

My background:I am Chinese myself, I grew up in China. Chinese food in China is nothing like here. Contrary to media, food in China is less oily, and with lots of variety -- NO SINGLE RESTAURANT in CHINA has the SAME MENU! and btw, things like scorpions, and other bugs, or mice are NOT common dishes. US media only shows them to attract viewers.

With this said, I also like boxed lunches here. Anyone who has been to Philadelphia knows what box lunches are. They are street vendors with moving trucks, and they sell you a boxed lunch for ~$5-6. Not exactly healthy, but kinda tasty. I used to eat them every day for lunch, and they satisfy me.

As you can see, I am not a picky eater, but know what authentic Chinese food taste like.

Hei La Moon has lots of good reviews online -- mostly for dim sum -- my only answer is: please don't make me laugh, dim sum are not made in the restaurant, they are bought somewhere else and served to you. Do you honestly think they make these things and serve them to you in the little kitchen they have?

btw, I would not eat dim sum often. These are processed food. god knows what kind of meat they have inside the paste, and how much preservatives they add in.

My review is for their dinner menu.1) Most food is at least 3 weeks old. Pork I ordered was black, with lots of salt to cover up the taste. Remember, pork, the other white meat? This dish is in the Chef Specialty section. Sweet and Sour Filet fish looks like someone went to McDonalds and grabbed all of their sweet and sour packages and poured onto the fish. I can barely tell that it's fish.

2) Service was extremely BAD! When asked to take the pork back, the waiter started to yell at me and gave me attitudes. The manager came and also argued that the pork is one of their finest dishes, and he doesn't understand what's wrong with it. Please, I dare you to eat it and not throw up later!!!

3) My worst moment: towards the end of the meal, we were wondering what happened to our appetizer (fried pancakes). The waiter said 'ok, it's coming'. Later, after I asked the pork to be taken back, the waiter came with the pancake, and said another one is coming. I was confused, and he immediately jumped on me, and yelled while waving his fist at me saying why I am being so confusing. -- I am speechless!

4) After all this, you would think the manager would offer me a free meal after all this trouble, as most decent people would do. But, no, these people also pretend that their English is bad so that they don't understand you. But this is very contradictory. If you English is bad, and you see a Chinese woman, as myself, you would have tried to speak Chinese to me. Also, if you don't understand, try to ask us again. I asked for the manager’s name, as this is pretty customary. The manager asked repeatedly why you want my name, and finally reluctantly gave me his name. My only word: if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to worry about.

5) To serve food like this is DISgraceful to all the Chinese people out there. Food is a common language among all race, basically you have just insulted me.